Entry Level Jobs Want Three Years of Experience Now

Rachel Grandis did everything the career guides told her to. She stacked internships and side work through college and graduated from Elon University in May with a degree in strategic communications. Then she started scrolling entry level jobs listings — and realized the goalposts had moved before she ever reached the field.

“Entry-level to these companies is somebody who’s coming from three years of experience in the workforce,” Grandis told CNBC Make It, as reported by Black Enterprise. Even with years of hands-on work behind her, she struggled to land a full-time role. She has become the human face of the experience paradox: roles labeled entry level jobs that quietly demand the resume of a mid-career hire.

The frustration is now backed by hard numbers. According to the findings released in the announcement for Cengage’s Graduate Employability Report, 77% of recent graduates believe employers expect more experience than an entry-level candidate should reasonably have, and 75% say there are too few genuine entry level jobs. More than half — 53% — chose not to apply to openings in their field because they felt underqualified, up from 48% the previous year, while 64% say the qualifications listed in postings exceed what is reasonable.

What the data says about entry level jobs right now

The survey was broad: eleven hundred recent US graduates, more than nine hundred full-time hiring managers, and about seven hundred sixty college instructors were polled between April and August, according to Black Enterprise’s coverage of the CNBC reporting. The pressure grads describe is intense — 91% felt at least some pressure to accept any available job rather than one that fits, as reported in the Cengage announcement. Thirty-two percent name lack of work experience as the barrier that kept them out of the running.

The degree itself is losing perceived value fast. Only 37% of grads believe their education was worth the cost, down from 68% in the survey’s inaugural 2022 edition — and part of that slide comes down to how few true entry level jobs the degree unlocks. Cengage CEO Michael Hansen said graduates are now expected to arrive with experience, job-specific skills and “readiness from day one,” as he put it in the company’s announcement.

Why employers say the bar keeps rising

Grads see moving goalposts; employers see a skills emergency. According to the survey, 72% of hiring managers say the pace of workplace change has made it difficult for colleges to keep programs current, and employers flagged teamwork, project coordination, and problem-solving as the areas where recent grads most need development, as reported by Black Enterprise. It is a real counterweight to the grads’ frustration: the economy grads are entering genuinely looks different from the one their degree was designed for.

When companies evaluate entry level jobs candidates, the factors they prioritize are job-specific skills, real-world experience, and relevant training — with the college degree itself ranking last of the four, according to the Cengage findings. Yet 61% of employers still require an associate or bachelor’s degree for those same roles, and 70% believe preparing for the workforce is primarily the student’s own responsibility. The degree matters for getting in the door; the skills decide what happens next.

The pipeline is also narrowing. Job postings on Handshake rose just one percent over the past year after three straight years of declines, and employers posted nearly twice as many full-time openings for the class of 2022 as for the class of 2026, according to CNBC’s reporting. Fewer openings and higher bars at the same time — that is the squeeze.

How grads are working around the catch-22

With true entry level jobs scarce, grads are building their own on-ramps. Nearly half of those still seeking relevant work are considering a “stepping-stone” role to get a foot in the door, according to the Cengage report’s announcement. And 84% plan to pursue more learning or skills training after graduation — career readiness as a side quest, not something a diploma automatically confers.

The single biggest differentiator is one many grads already know: internships. Among employed graduates who had held an internship, 81% say it helped them secure their job, according to EdTech Digest’s analysis of the survey. When asked what contributed most to landing work, grads ranked internships or prior work experience first, ahead of a college degree by a wide margin — the internship has become the gatekeeper for entry level jobs.

Grads are also teaching themselves the skills employers want. Sixty-one percent say they have sufficient AI skills for the jobs they applied to — but 64% learned most of those skills independently, not through their degree programs, according to EdTech Digest’s write-up. The self-taught portfolio, not the transcript, may be what actually lands entry level jobs now.

What does this mean if you’re job hunting right now? First, treat most “required” qualifications as a wish list: with 53% of grads self-selecting out of entry level jobs they felt underqualified for, applying anyway is a competitive edge. Second, internships and stepping-stone roles aren’t detours — the data says they’re the main road. For more on how the youth job market is shifting, browse our career-path coverage and this related story on how AI is shrinking junior hiring.